WBAB's Roger and JP mark 25 years together: How they've connected with Long Island listeners

Roger, JP and I agree to meet at the Main Event off Broadhollow Road in Farmingdale — the heart of Long Island Country with two guys who are about as "Long Island Country" as you could ask for.

JP — John Parise — has a voice and accent that places him within a few blocks of the Deer Park house where he was born and raised. He and his wife now live in Oakdale, but "Deer Park is home — always," he says. Roger — Roger Luce — grew up in Bethpage but also spent a few formative early years in Connecticut. That might explain the accent from Anywhere, USA.

They're here to talk about the 25th anniversary of their WBAB/102.3 FM morning show, but this sprawling sports bar is so noisy that I ask the server to turn down the music. She kindly does, but there's still a background din — not that it matters anyway. These two have made-for-radio voices that have carried above the din of Long Island since January 2000. As hosts of the most popular 5:30 to 10 a.m. piece of real estate on the dial, they're the undisputed giants of radio from Floral Park to Montauk. A little background noise isn't about to stifle this pair.

In person as on the show, JP is the opinionated, chatty, funny half of this team, who likens his own unique voice to a "classic selling-drugs-to-high-school-kids" one. Roger — or "Rog" as his partner calls him — is deliberative and borderline cerebral. As an expert-level poker player (Texas Hold 'em) and World Series of Poker regular, he explains that "patience" is the key to his success around the gambling table. Around the mic, too.

By disposition, Parise explains he's the guy who rushes ahead, while "Rog" hangs back. "I'm always that person who needs the next thing, right? Get that carrot in front of my face and I'm gonna chase the carrot down." But more recently, Luce has "taught me to have a little gratitude for what we do have instead of what we don't have. He's taught me to slow down and appreciate the carrots we've already got."

CHALLENGES FACING RADIO

There was in fact a time when a milestone anniversary was an opportunity for media stars like them to take a victory lap. No longer: From radio to TV, and streaming to cable, the entire media world is upside down. Big stars are seeing their salad-day salaries slashed or shown the exit. To celebrate is to court hubris, or a closer look from bean-counters.

Roger and JP know the perils firsthand. In early December, the Tampa, Florida, radio show both had cohosted remotely for the past decade — a midday talk program for Tampa powerhouse WHPT/102.5 FM, or "The Bone" — was canceled. The BAB show plays rock standards from the '70s through '90s while The Bone show had just Luce and Parise shooting the breeze — not unlike the breeze Long Island listeners are so familiar with between songs.

The kicker — for them the shock — was that the Tampa show was top-rated in its time period, too. Their producer, Brett Fiumara, a veteran member of the BAB show, was also let go.

"Because our contract says to give us six months notice, they told us back in June [2024] they were gonna sunset the show," says Luce. "And I'm like, 'Are you kidding?' [They said] 'We know you guys are No. 1, but there is gonna be a lot of weird cuts going on [and] you are the first people we're telling.'"

He adds, "I guess they just wanted to cut the expense line."

The station later called to ask if Parise would continue as a solo act on the 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. slot. Parise agreed and now hosts without his partner of the past 25 years.

Both the Tampa and West Babylon stations are owned by hedge fund giant Apollo Global Management, which also owns WBLI here. There have been rumors for years that Apollo wants to unload all its radio stations — and in late March Bloomberg reported Apollo is now "exploring" just such a sale.

Both Parise, 53, and Luce, 61, have a year and a half left on their BAB contract, but Apollo must let them know by the end of this year whether it will pick up the option for 2026. Amid the uncertainly, Parise says he's been forced to think about a possible future without his close friend while Luce says he's lately started to think about the "r" word — retirement.

They expect Apollo will pick up their next year,  but also seem prepared for any outcome. Apollo didn't respond to an email seeking comment.

LAUNCHING AN OPPOSITES-ATTRACT TEAM

Both first met back in the late '90s at WBAB, where Parise had worked as head of interns while finishing up college at Hofstra, and where Luce was an afternoon host. He, too, had joined as an intern over a decade earlier, working weekend nights while going to what was then known as C.W. Post. He joined full-time after graduation.

At first, Luce first filled in for other personalities, then when afternoons opened up he became full-time host there for the next 10 years. When longtime morning host Bob Buchmann left for WAXQ/104.3 FM, "Q104," in New York in 1999, Luce was offered the program director role Buchmann had held for so long but decided "I'd rather not manage a building full of egos — I'd rather be one."

WBAB's future morning team would be the byproduct of luck and serendipity. Luce had hosted Friday afternoon shows from various bars around the Island, while Parise drove the vans to them. "In between all the songs while we're waiting for things to happen, we'd be talking and laughing," says Luce. "He'd only been on the radio a little bit but I thought we had a chemistry and [told my boss] 'I think he's an idiot and he thinks I'm an idiot! [Laughs] It's perfect. So that's how it really went down."

'WE STRUCK GOLD'

With the January 2000 launch, "We struck gold," says Kim Guthrie who was running the station at the time. "Roger had a velvety set of pipes and sounded like a million dollars while JP was funny and made everybody crack up. Luckily, both also lived on Long Island and lived the Long Island lifestyle — which is not New Jersey's, or Westchester, or Manhattan or Queens. It's Long Island, and both were given permission to be their authentic selves."

Luce says the initial idea was "Two guys walk into a bar and talk [and] that is still kind of mentally the idea in my mind. We talk about all sorts of stuff, whether it's personal, or what's going on in the news — but never, or rarely politics. Listeners don't come to us for that. Our goal is to make that time stuck in the car as enjoyable as it possibly can be."

Mostly, though, they bonded themselves to Long Island, and vice versa. "We're in the streets" with the audience, says Parise. "We're at the concerts they go to. We're at the high school events that their kids went to because our kids went there, too. We lived those lives. We all get together from 5:30 to 10, and then we go away — but we will see you out in those bars, or where your band goes to play, or at your kids' soccer games."

SOME BUMPS ALONG THE WAY

Before the success, there was a long learning curve — as well as a few near-calamitous shock jock mistakes along the way.

In 2003, at the climax of a heavily promoted "special announcement," JP went on the air to announce that "there is no Santa Claus." The stunt — which he says he now bitterly regrets — got him international attention and death threats. In 2006, their show aired a commercial parody called "Wetback Steakhouse." It was quickly pulled and they were forced to apologize to the Hispanic community.

What may have been "Roger & JP's" singular triumph over these past 25 years arrived quickly — the days and weeks following Sept. 11, 2001, when the hosts organized a successful drive to get much-needed supplies to Ground Zero.

Not long after that, the ratings started to cool, which led to a "come to Jesus meeting" with new management, says Parise. (Guthrie had left by then.)

They were also told to hire a coach — Lorna Ozmon, who has developed dozens of radio personalities since the early 1980s.

In a phone interview from her Scottsdale, Arizona, office, Ozmon says, "They were just kind of floating all over the place, and doing things and features that were not necessarily to their benefit."

She recalls telling Parise, " 'You've always got to be naughty — you don't have to be awful, but always be naughty, with a bit of an edge.' "

Luce, meanwhile, "Was kind of a challenge because he's the prototypical straight guy who didn't have any other role other than calling on his partner's naughtiness." The three ended up working together for years.

Parise offers a slightly different perspective on her advice: "She said, you are the audience — the lucky lottery ticket winner who ended up with a cool gig. You be the lunatic while Roger is the voice of reason — the guy who belongs here. It was the best advice for those years, and we grew from there."

THE NEXT CHAPTER — OR FINAL ONE?

Guthrie, who later became division president of iHeartMedia where she now works in a strategic adviser role, says, "I don't have the answer" about the future of "Roger & JP," but there "are not a lot of places to cut in radio which is already very streamlined. Every radio station in the country is constantly evaluating their expenses. You also know what you cannot cut — these local programs. It's kind of a third rail and you don't want to go there."

John Caracciolo, the chief executive of JVC who runs a string of Long Island radio stations from his Ronkonkoma base, says "Their connection to listeners on Long Island is unmatched [and] I've always said they're like a Visa card — they're accepted everywhere. They don't offend, and they're good for the medium. I love having them as a competitor because they make us relevant."

What's next? Luce says he's fine with his friend's solo run at The Bone because it's giving him a chance to build a new identity outside of "Roger & JP." And he has been giving some thought to retirement. (He wants to eventually end up on the west coast of Florida.)

But "here's the thing, " he says, as the afternoon light grows long at the Main Event, and that background din recedes. "Do I think the company as it is now would even think about not bringing us back for a fourth year? No."

Nevertheless, does the inner-poker player in him advise patience?

"Yeah, worked so far."